Ford is losing a lot for the 2012 rally season. Their lead driver Mikko Hirvonen is defecting to archrival Citroën and Ford's longtime sponsor, Abu Dhabi, is leaving, too. At least Ford has a pretty new paintjob for its WRC Fiesta, courtesy of Castrol Oil.

The big rivalry in rally for the past five or six years has been between Ford's perpetually-second Mikko Hirvonen and Citroën's 8-time world champion Sebastian Loeb. Now that Hirvonen is leaving for Citroën, Ford will have to rely on their number two driver, Jari-Matti Latvala (who came in fourth in the standings last year) and Petter Solberg, who signed a one-year contract with Ford. Only time will tell if Latvala's aggressive driving style and Ford's new Castrol sponsorship will be enough to defeat the all-star combination of Citroën, Loeb and now Hirvonen.